WEBVTT 00:00:00.080 --> 00:00:01.120 Good morning, Church. 00:00:02.240 --> 00:00:05.919 Our reading is from Matthew six, nineteen through twenty-four. 00:00:06.559 --> 00:00:14.240 Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 00:00:14.560 --> 00:00:22.320 But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in and steal. 00:00:22.640 --> 00:00:25.839 For where your treasure is, there your heart will also be. 00:00:26.480 --> 00:00:28.559 The eye is a lamp of the body. 00:00:28.879 --> 00:00:33.439 So if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light. 00:00:33.600 --> 00:00:37.840 But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. 00:00:38.159 --> 00:00:46.320 If then the light is in you, if then the light is the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness. 00:00:46.560 --> 00:00:55.439 No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. 00:00:55.600 --> 00:00:57.759 You cannot serve God and money. 00:00:58.000 --> 00:00:59.200 This is the word of the Lord. 00:00:59.280 --> 00:01:00.560 Please be seated. 00:01:08.319 --> 00:01:09.599 Thanks for joining us this morning. 00:01:09.680 --> 00:01:10.799 My name is James Rathman. 00:01:10.959 --> 00:01:13.519 I'm the pastor here at Redemption Church Denver. 00:01:13.599 --> 00:01:17.680 Uh we've got a fun at uh right after church, we've got the Parish Olympics. 00:01:17.840 --> 00:01:28.560 Um if uh as we were talking about in the foyer just before, if you're talking to anybody from another parish this morning, you should count on that they're probably doing recon on you. 00:01:28.879 --> 00:01:32.239 So I recommend just not talking to anybody outside of your parish. 00:01:32.319 --> 00:01:34.239 That's my recommendation for this morning. 00:01:34.879 --> 00:01:39.519 Uh we are in our second week of our summer series called Christ is Enough. 00:01:40.159 --> 00:01:48.480 And uh we're throughout this series, we're covering three three practices that we want to incorporate into our church. 00:01:48.640 --> 00:01:52.719 These are prayer, generosity, and sabbath. 00:01:52.959 --> 00:02:05.920 And we're looking at how we incorporate these into our lives at the three levels of relationship that we really experience these in, which are personally for ourselves, and then at the level of our families, and then at the level of us as a community, a church. 00:02:06.000 --> 00:02:08.879 And so three times three is nine. 00:02:10.000 --> 00:02:10.960 Pretty good. 00:02:11.439 --> 00:02:14.879 We're not good at math, so whenever I stick the landing. 00:02:15.520 --> 00:02:28.080 And so we've got a nine-week series, and we're covering generosity, and uh we're covering uh first these three things at the personal level, and then next we'll be covering them at the family level, and then next we'll be covering them at the church level. 00:02:28.159 --> 00:02:34.400 So this is our second week, so we're at the personal level still, and we're talking about generosity. 00:02:34.639 --> 00:02:40.960 So as we move into this, let's uh uh uh pray together uh that we can see Christ's teachings. 00:02:41.599 --> 00:02:46.879 Holy Father, I thank you for gathering us together again on your day. 00:02:47.840 --> 00:03:09.599 We praise you that you meet us here, that you inhabit our praises, that you hear us in our confession, that we receive pardon from uh your graciousness, that you do promise that uh it when we confess our sins, you are faithful and just to forgive us our sins, to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 00:03:09.759 --> 00:03:28.400 I pray that as we sit here this morning, that as we partook in in confession, that we sit here no longer condemned by our sin, but freed in you, and that we listen to your word as those who have been grafted into your body and who have been atoned for by your work on the cross. 00:03:29.280 --> 00:03:45.199 Lord Jesus, would you allow us to understand your teachings and allow us to participate in them that you might be Lord of our lives, and that in practicing them we might receive and participate in the fullness of life that you've promised to us and purchased for us. 00:03:45.439 --> 00:03:47.039 We lift this up in Jesus' name. 00:03:47.280 --> 00:03:47.919 Amen. 00:03:49.360 --> 00:04:04.960 So in a series called Christ is enough, and when we're practicing these three practices that are meant to reinforce this idea that Christ is sufficient, he is sufficient for all and for everything that we desire in our lives. 00:04:05.120 --> 00:04:10.800 We find the absolute sufficiency that we need, the true satisfaction in Christ alone. 00:04:11.599 --> 00:04:15.039 Well, we can't have a series like that without talking about money. 00:04:15.439 --> 00:04:24.720 We have to talk about this main thing in our culture that is never satisfied and that is always asking for and desiring more. 00:04:25.120 --> 00:04:34.240 Money is strange, you know, because uh you have it, but it's deceptive because just as easily it can have you. 00:04:34.560 --> 00:04:41.439 And it's and it's it almost hides behind its simplicity because money, how's simple, right? 00:04:41.519 --> 00:04:59.279 It's uh how much is oh one dollar is just you know one dollar, and then you just add them up and you can use simple things like uh addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, and it always sticks to those same numbers and it seems to account uh for exactly whatever simple calculations you can run through it. 00:04:59.360 --> 00:05:01.600 That's a simple thing, not to be feared. 00:05:01.680 --> 00:05:08.800 It's it's uh uh we can we can grasp it and understand it completely just looking at the numbers of it. 00:05:09.040 --> 00:05:12.720 And yet, we all know that it is no simple thing. 00:05:12.959 --> 00:05:21.199 Uh it is it is much more complicated than it appears, and it reveals the truths of our hearts. 00:05:22.000 --> 00:05:24.000 Solomon, that's right, I said it. 00:05:24.160 --> 00:05:25.920 Solomon, I think he wrote Ecclesiastes. 00:05:26.079 --> 00:05:36.560 He um uh says in that's controversial, but not really, you know, it's controversial like among theologians, but there's uh of whom I read. 00:05:37.680 --> 00:05:48.240 In Ecclesiastes 10 19, Solomon says, Bread is made for laughter, and wine gladdens life, and money answers everything. 00:05:48.560 --> 00:05:50.160 That's my senior quote. 00:05:52.319 --> 00:05:54.480 So Solomon, you know, this is the Bible. 00:05:54.800 --> 00:05:56.720 He's saying something that's true here. 00:05:57.519 --> 00:05:59.839 Bread is great for laughter. 00:06:00.160 --> 00:06:04.399 Wine gladdens life, and money answers everything. 00:06:04.879 --> 00:06:22.800 I kind of have a joke, even like amongst the elders, we'll like have some discussion about something that's going on with the church, or you hear a problem that comes in through people's lives, or we hear, you know, uh tensions that are brought up in people's lives, and and so often it's like, oh, this is another problem that money could solve. 00:06:22.959 --> 00:06:25.600 Why don't have you tried having more money? 00:06:25.920 --> 00:06:29.759 Because I think if you had more money, then this actually is not a problem. 00:06:30.000 --> 00:06:34.079 Uh, this is just something that you could just, you know, use that money to solve. 00:06:34.240 --> 00:06:36.160 And it really is like that, isn't it? 00:06:36.319 --> 00:06:39.439 Money solves so many problems. 00:06:39.759 --> 00:06:42.800 That's that's not something that the Bible ignores. 00:06:43.839 --> 00:06:55.279 You know, but the part of the language that's used to discuss money in the passage that we're looking at today, we see treasure and we also see money referred to as mammon. 00:06:55.759 --> 00:06:59.839 It's a god, and it's a god that makes demands of you. 00:06:59.920 --> 00:07:08.319 And I think it's it's one of the most insidious gods that's available to us, because let's compare two of them: Baal and Mammon. 00:07:08.560 --> 00:07:15.600 Baal, you know, uh, ever seductive to the Israelites uh with the Baal worshippers that they were surrounded by. 00:07:15.839 --> 00:07:18.639 And uh Baal was the god of the storm. 00:07:18.959 --> 00:07:25.199 And the thing that you needed from Baal was the early lane, the early rains and the late rains. 00:07:25.439 --> 00:07:37.759 But if you got the early lane, whoa, this is a tough one, but if you got the early rains and the late rains from Baal, your worship for him couldn't access much more. 00:07:38.079 --> 00:07:46.319 That's all you could receive from him, and therefore there's something like a limit to the worship of Baal that's just built into the nature of that God. 00:07:46.639 --> 00:07:53.199 But mammon, well, as we just read, money answers everything. 00:07:54.399 --> 00:07:59.199 So there's no stop to the worship of Mammon. 00:07:59.600 --> 00:08:05.439 It is a practice of creating discontentment in our hearts. 00:08:05.600 --> 00:08:10.639 And you think of the way that our culture is structured compared to the way like an ancient culture is structured. 00:08:10.800 --> 00:08:24.560 If you were to walk around a great ancient city, you'd be surrounded by uh statues of heroes and uh uh temples that would uh draw your attention to things that are higher than you. 00:08:25.040 --> 00:08:38.399 And as you walk through those things, you would experience a sense of humility and a sense of place in your story, and you would actually receive something like an identity by just participating in the way that the city is organized. 00:08:38.559 --> 00:08:48.080 But the way that our cities are organized, you know, what's the perhaps the the um most central image of a city in our culture is Times Square. 00:08:48.240 --> 00:08:51.279 And what is time what is Times Square plastered in? 00:08:51.440 --> 00:08:53.200 You know, what do you go there to see? 00:08:54.799 --> 00:08:57.679 Uh I'll I'll turn the question over to you guys. 00:09:00.080 --> 00:09:00.639 Ads. 00:09:00.960 --> 00:09:01.360 Yeah. 00:09:01.519 --> 00:09:03.200 Well what is the center of our culture? 00:09:03.279 --> 00:09:04.000 It's ads. 00:09:04.159 --> 00:09:11.360 And uh ads are not the type of thing they don't say, here's here's where you are, here's your place in the story. 00:09:11.519 --> 00:09:14.000 They say here's where you could be. 00:09:15.279 --> 00:09:18.080 And you could be here quite easily. 00:09:18.720 --> 00:09:22.720 It's simple exchange, and it's perpetual. 00:09:23.279 --> 00:09:38.320 Our uh the way that we move through our world is designed to be cultivating a perpetual discontent, and that discontent can be solved easily, simply, can be solved with money. 00:09:39.200 --> 00:09:41.360 And so it functions as a God. 00:09:41.600 --> 00:09:43.519 Mammon is never satisfied. 00:09:43.679 --> 00:09:55.120 So when Jesus teaches about money, which he does often, he teaches about finding your right orientation towards God. 00:09:55.840 --> 00:10:04.080 Because that is the most central thing that we must grasp when we understand how it is that we interact with our money. 00:10:04.639 --> 00:10:13.279 In the passage that we're looking at today, Jesus teaches us how to have a spirit which is able to relate properly to money. 00:10:13.440 --> 00:10:27.360 And what I'm arguing in this sermon is that the practice that you must participate in in order to have a right orientation towards money is generosity. 00:10:27.759 --> 00:10:32.480 You have to be able to give it, you have to be able to part with it. 00:10:32.720 --> 00:10:38.720 If you're not able to, then your money owns you, and you're wrongly ordered. 00:10:39.679 --> 00:10:47.440 Jesus describes in this passage that there are three things that must be transformed in order for us to rightly approach money. 00:10:47.600 --> 00:10:52.720 Those three things are our hearts, our eyes, and our God. 00:10:53.919 --> 00:10:56.639 So it's not too much, you know, not much of a heavy lift. 00:10:57.360 --> 00:11:01.600 Just your heart and your eyes and who you worship. 00:11:03.200 --> 00:11:04.399 So let's jump in. 00:11:04.639 --> 00:11:11.360 The first thing that needs to be transformed in order for us to have hearts that can properly relate to money is is our heart. 00:11:12.720 --> 00:11:24.720 So Matthew 6, verses 19 and 20 says, Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 00:11:25.360 --> 00:11:36.000 But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in and steal. 00:11:37.120 --> 00:11:46.399 This passage is in the Sermon on the Mount, the most famous of Jesus' teachings, and this is Christ Himself explaining to us a proper relationship to money. 00:11:46.559 --> 00:11:50.159 And this section begins with just a simple description. 00:11:50.240 --> 00:11:52.720 So let's just take this at face value. 00:11:53.200 --> 00:12:01.919 Here on earth, moths and rust and decay and theft destroy everything. 00:12:03.039 --> 00:12:11.279 We have to be able to grasp this because I promise you, you are manipulated into thinking that this isn't really true. 00:12:11.840 --> 00:12:16.480 Or if you had the right things, then this wouldn't be true. 00:12:16.799 --> 00:12:18.720 But this is a fact of the world. 00:12:19.360 --> 00:12:26.879 Here, moth and rust, decay, theft, everything gets destroyed. 00:12:27.279 --> 00:12:33.840 On the internet, a place I frequently visit, there are ads which are targeted for me. 00:12:34.639 --> 00:12:37.200 And they know how to sell me a t-shirt. 00:12:37.919 --> 00:12:50.720 Because the way that you sell a man a t-shirt, I've learned, is you you address i I think I think the way that you sell a woman a t-shirt is you say, here's a beautiful t-shirt. 00:12:51.360 --> 00:12:56.639 The way that you sell a man a t-shirt is you say, I know about your t-shirt problem. 00:12:58.879 --> 00:13:01.759 And you describe the t-shirt uh like this. 00:13:02.320 --> 00:13:06.799 This is the last t-shirt you'll ever need. 00:13:07.200 --> 00:13:12.559 This t you can wear this t-shirt traveling for three days in a in a row. 00:13:12.720 --> 00:13:15.440 We've named it the three-day shirt. 00:13:16.159 --> 00:13:18.879 And it la and it'll last for ten years. 00:13:19.039 --> 00:13:21.519 This is the 10-year hoodie. 00:13:21.759 --> 00:13:24.879 That's a real product that I've looked at. 00:13:27.519 --> 00:13:37.759 And I've thought, I've thought, ten years, I could have that hoodie problem solved for the next 10 years, and I just won't have to think about that hoodie thing anymore. 00:13:37.919 --> 00:13:39.600 I didn't have a hoodie problem. 00:13:40.000 --> 00:13:43.279 But I've never thought in those terms before. 00:13:43.440 --> 00:13:49.919 But the point is, what's being said there is I can give you something that won't decay. 00:13:50.720 --> 00:13:54.879 And it you it will be satisfying. 00:13:55.039 --> 00:14:05.039 And you can just put you can you can have this one little tiny little corner of your life, the hoodie corner, that doesn't need to be managed. 00:14:05.200 --> 00:14:11.679 It can just this is Ron Popeel, set it and yeah. 00:14:15.519 --> 00:14:18.320 And Jesus is trying to wake you up. 00:14:18.879 --> 00:14:20.720 There is no such thing. 00:14:20.960 --> 00:14:22.639 Don't click the ad. 00:14:22.720 --> 00:14:26.639 Your t-shirt problem will keep coming, it will keep wearing out. 00:14:26.799 --> 00:14:29.120 Your jeans will go out of style. 00:14:29.360 --> 00:14:35.200 You will not be able to have these things settled in your life. 00:14:36.639 --> 00:14:40.320 This is true of your retirement planning. 00:14:40.480 --> 00:14:43.759 This is true of your investments, this is true. 00:14:43.840 --> 00:14:45.679 This is a fact of the world. 00:14:46.559 --> 00:14:48.399 There is no set it and forget it. 00:14:48.639 --> 00:14:50.559 Things here decay. 00:14:51.679 --> 00:14:53.440 So, what is life then? 00:14:54.159 --> 00:14:59.279 Is it is it just, you know, polishing the brass on the Titanic? 00:15:00.559 --> 00:15:06.399 Is it just foolish to engage with anything in life because all of it is here to just decay? 00:15:06.559 --> 00:15:12.320 Is it that what we should be doing is we should be taking a more heavenly-minded approach to life. 00:15:12.480 --> 00:15:32.720 And we should take an approach to life that looks more like Siddhartha, who decides the best thing I can do is sit at the edge of this river and contemplate the river and write off any of the these physical aspects of the world, because all of these physical aspects of the world are just doomed to decay. 00:15:32.879 --> 00:15:37.519 Now, many of us hear a passage like this, and we read it in those terms. 00:15:37.759 --> 00:15:49.039 We hear a heaven and earth dichotomy, and what we input into that space is a spiritual and physical dichotomy. 00:15:49.360 --> 00:16:01.519 Where we say that, okay, what I've learned here is that it is the spiritual things that matter because those don't decay, they can be stored in heaven, and it is the physical things that don't matter because they will decay. 00:16:01.679 --> 00:16:08.720 But that's a strange it's difficult to fit that into the Christian narrative. 00:16:09.360 --> 00:16:16.080 Because, you know, one of the things that's so special about Jesus, of which there are many, is that he's God. 00:16:16.720 --> 00:16:18.559 That's probably top of the list. 00:16:21.279 --> 00:16:28.799 But strangely, what's incredible uh about him is that he is God and he is man. 00:16:30.320 --> 00:16:39.039 Christianity is is not a uh is not a religion of uh resolving things like this. 00:16:39.200 --> 00:16:43.120 It is a religion of saying, look, these things are absolutely true. 00:16:43.279 --> 00:16:47.600 And if they feel contradictory to you, it's because you don't understand the way the world works. 00:16:48.240 --> 00:16:53.600 But Jesus is God and man, both perfectly brought together. 00:16:53.759 --> 00:16:56.320 God, the Father, is spirit. 00:16:57.919 --> 00:17:00.879 This is part of the definition of God, that he is spirit. 00:17:01.039 --> 00:17:10.319 But Jesus, as we sang this morning, he's going around and he's healing people with his hands. 00:17:11.279 --> 00:17:13.599 He's reaching out and touching. 00:17:13.920 --> 00:17:17.039 He is absolutely physical. 00:17:17.519 --> 00:17:21.359 He becomes incarnated into the physical world, the one that we inhabit. 00:17:21.440 --> 00:17:26.559 In Genesis 1, we see the creation of this physical world. 00:17:26.720 --> 00:17:31.839 And then Jesus dies, a real physical death in this world. 00:17:32.160 --> 00:17:35.119 And then what what's so special about that death? 00:17:35.279 --> 00:17:36.079 What happens later? 00:17:36.160 --> 00:17:37.279 It's not typical. 00:17:39.119 --> 00:17:41.279 What happens to Jesus after his death? 00:17:41.920 --> 00:17:43.119 He rises. 00:17:44.880 --> 00:17:54.160 But it does he does he come back as a ghostly apparition who said, All that healing with my hands business is done. 00:17:54.720 --> 00:17:57.039 Because I'm too floaty now. 00:17:57.279 --> 00:17:59.039 I'm just spiritual. 00:17:59.359 --> 00:18:05.599 Does he come back and explain to his disciples, now all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me? 00:18:05.680 --> 00:18:09.920 And the authority on earth, of course, doesn't matter because that's just the physical authority. 00:18:10.160 --> 00:18:22.799 The authority in heaven, that's what matters, because that's the spiritual authority, and I am the one who came so that you might overcome these physical constraints on your spirituality. 00:18:23.519 --> 00:18:26.400 No, that is not what Jesus does. 00:18:26.799 --> 00:18:38.079 Jesus is resurrected in a physical body that is absolutely redeemed, absolutely restored, and he says, if you put your faith in me, it will be likewise for you. 00:18:38.880 --> 00:18:42.960 And the whole creation will be restored. 00:18:43.119 --> 00:18:51.359 What I laid out as good in the very beginning will not be undone by sin, but will be restored. 00:18:52.559 --> 00:19:10.559 So we need to learn how to understand what Jesus is saying when he's talking about this heaven and earth dichotomy, earth where things are corrupted and destroyed, where entropy rules the day, and heaven where things can be stored forever and last eternally. 00:19:11.119 --> 00:19:15.519 This is not a physical and spiritual distinction. 00:19:18.559 --> 00:19:38.640 You see, heaven is the pattern, the God-intended pattern, where his rule is perfectly expressed, uncorrupted by sin, and the earth is meant to be brought into conformity with the pattern of God's good intentions. 00:19:39.200 --> 00:20:04.240 This is true in the beginning before the fall, that the world is perfectly wedded with heaven and earth, and the wedding would continue more and more by the mediation of Adam, and the expression of God's good intentions would spread through the whole earth, so that the whole world would be a glorious garden where God would dwell with us, and we would enjoy his presence. 00:20:07.039 --> 00:20:10.960 So, what is the earth then in Jesus' description of it here? 00:20:11.119 --> 00:20:15.920 The earth as it is now has been radically corrupted by sin. 00:20:16.640 --> 00:20:26.880 And with the entrance of sin, the sin of Adam and Eve in the garden, into the story, the world fell under a curse, so that all things now are guided by the principles of entropy. 00:20:26.960 --> 00:20:28.319 Everything unwinds. 00:20:28.480 --> 00:20:31.119 There is no ten-year hoodie. 00:20:34.480 --> 00:20:36.079 It all decays. 00:20:38.000 --> 00:20:43.440 So what it what is Jesus' project then? 00:20:45.119 --> 00:20:52.880 The project of Jesus' redemption is he comes in and he says, I will atone for the sin. 00:20:54.240 --> 00:21:04.480 I will place myself back as Lord of creation, as I am Lord of the hearts of the ones who I've put in charge of creation, the hearts of humanity. 00:21:05.039 --> 00:21:12.640 And in atoning for them and redeeming them, we will see that all of creation will be redeemed. 00:21:12.880 --> 00:21:40.880 And we look forward to his coming back when this is fully realized, and we see that the work of Christ is not a work of taking us out of this physical world into some floaty, better spiritual place, but it is a work of redeeming that which is broken and calling it good again, as he called it in the very beginning. 00:21:41.279 --> 00:21:43.359 Sin does not have the final word. 00:21:46.480 --> 00:21:59.119 So then, how is it that something can be ordered in such a way that it leads to decay or stored up in heaven in such a way that it will last eternally? 00:21:59.279 --> 00:22:01.200 Here is the Distinction. 00:22:02.960 --> 00:22:11.680 It is made or held or produced in such a way that says this Christ is the Lord of me. 00:22:12.240 --> 00:22:22.559 And Christ's kingdom has come, it is in our midst, and it is coming fully, so that on that day it will last. 00:22:24.559 --> 00:22:46.640 This is hinted at in 1 Corinthians 3, verses 12 through 13, where Paul says, Now, if anyone builds on the foundation, the foundation which is Christ, there is no other foundation, but he says, if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each one's work will become manifest, for the day will disclose it. 00:22:46.880 --> 00:22:49.440 The day is Christ's second coming. 00:22:49.920 --> 00:22:57.440 Because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. 00:22:57.759 --> 00:23:07.599 I'm not a chemist, but if you were to put gold, silver, precious stones into a fire, I wouldn't be that concerned. 00:23:08.160 --> 00:23:12.160 They might just come out the other side just fine, maybe even a little better. 00:23:12.559 --> 00:23:20.880 But wood, hay, straw, I don't know if you know any pigs who have tried to build their own houses, but those do not hold up as well. 00:23:22.240 --> 00:23:24.480 In fact, they they just burn. 00:23:26.720 --> 00:23:30.240 So look, this is not a spiritual physical distinction. 00:23:30.319 --> 00:23:40.480 It is not as though there are some builders, and then there are the real spiritual people who don't messy themselves with the physical aspects of the world. 00:23:41.519 --> 00:23:43.119 Everyone's building. 00:23:44.799 --> 00:23:46.319 Everyone's making. 00:23:47.279 --> 00:23:50.079 The question is, what are you building and making with? 00:23:50.240 --> 00:23:51.599 What type of material? 00:23:51.759 --> 00:23:56.000 And what determines the type of material is this question. 00:23:56.400 --> 00:24:01.519 Is this under the Lordship of Christ? 00:24:02.799 --> 00:24:18.400 Am I holding my money in such a way that if I were to look, if I were to read the story of how I used my money, it would it would amount to somebody would be able to read the story and set it down and say, that person thought Christ was Lord. 00:24:20.799 --> 00:24:25.039 If that would be the conclusion, it will never burn up. 00:24:25.599 --> 00:24:28.480 Even in the giving of it away, you would never lose any of it. 00:24:28.720 --> 00:24:33.680 It's stored, protected perfectly for you in heaven. 00:24:34.000 --> 00:24:36.160 NT Wright has my favorite quote about this. 00:24:36.240 --> 00:24:40.720 He says, What does it mean that it is stored, kept for you, waiting in heaven? 00:24:40.880 --> 00:24:43.519 It doesn't mean that it just stays there. 00:24:44.079 --> 00:24:48.960 It means that it will be realized in the new heavens and the new earth at Christ's second coming. 00:24:49.119 --> 00:24:52.160 You'll somehow even be able to participate with it, engage with it. 00:24:52.400 --> 00:25:01.519 He says, if I invite a friend over and I say there's I have beer stored for you in the fridge, I don't expect them to climb into the fridge in order to be able to drink it. 00:25:01.839 --> 00:25:03.759 He says it's stored for you. 00:25:05.200 --> 00:25:12.720 So this is the strange mystery of what we treasure. 00:25:14.960 --> 00:25:24.240 What we treasure only finds its value insofar as it is submitted to Christ as Lord. 00:25:24.799 --> 00:25:30.319 And this is why what we treasure reveals something about us. 00:25:32.640 --> 00:25:42.000 Jesus concludes this section in verse 21, where he says, For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. 00:25:43.440 --> 00:25:55.359 So you read the story of how this man handled his money, and you you set the book down, and you say, That man treasured prestige. 00:25:56.480 --> 00:25:59.440 I can tell he wanted to be seen. 00:26:01.440 --> 00:26:04.799 He wanted accolades, he wanted to be well known. 00:26:06.400 --> 00:26:07.680 It will burn. 00:26:08.640 --> 00:26:13.279 And it shows us that his heart is made of the type of thing that will burn. 00:26:14.240 --> 00:26:28.640 A good picture of Jesus' judgment is the flaming sword, which is put on the edge of the garden after the sin of Adam and Eve, and it's a sword that cuts things and divides, it makes judgments, and it sets things on fire and it tests them. 00:26:31.039 --> 00:26:45.519 If your heart treasures anything beyond the Lordship of Christ, you are setting up your whole life to burn. 00:26:45.920 --> 00:26:50.480 Now, the good news is now that's a deep mystery, what I just said. 00:26:51.839 --> 00:27:01.200 But how you can know that, how you could know if that's true of you, is not a deep mystery. 00:27:01.839 --> 00:27:04.720 It is almost horrifyingly prescient. 00:27:04.799 --> 00:27:10.880 There are things in our lives which are just they can be difficult to discern, our deeper motives. 00:27:12.079 --> 00:27:13.680 Money is simple. 00:27:14.240 --> 00:27:15.599 You can count it. 00:27:16.880 --> 00:27:23.119 Now, is that too, you know, oh let's leave a little pietism for for the rest of us. 00:27:23.279 --> 00:27:40.960 There's some uh uh of course we could imagine somebody whose heart is fully committed to the Lord, and uh yet they they don't give, and they don't give uh to their church, they don't give to their neighbors or to the poor for all sorts of reasonable uh uh concerns. 00:27:41.039 --> 00:27:43.279 You know, they're they're utterly responsible. 00:27:43.519 --> 00:27:52.079 Uh they only they have cash in labeled envelopes, and they don't spend beyond the cash that is in those labeled envelopes. 00:27:54.000 --> 00:28:04.000 And for those reasons, they see it would be imprudent to give to something that looks like it's doing fine anyway, and will probably work itself out. 00:28:07.359 --> 00:28:13.519 You can know that that person does not treasure the Lord. 00:28:15.039 --> 00:28:16.480 No mystery. 00:28:17.279 --> 00:28:22.880 This is how plain Christ's speaking about money is. 00:28:23.759 --> 00:28:29.359 We love to create a little tension between the physical things that we do and the heart that it reveals. 00:28:29.440 --> 00:28:35.279 And we like to imagine that this physical world is, of course, not as meaningful as the heart that is behind it. 00:28:35.519 --> 00:28:47.359 We get some of that from Jesus' teachings in the Sermon on the Mount, where we see that the heart of lust can be uh as bad as the adultery that comes from the heart of lust. 00:28:47.599 --> 00:28:57.599 But saying, okay, well then we just don't uh we don't give, but our heart, it it really does treasure the Lord in our heart. 00:28:57.839 --> 00:29:02.799 Well, let's see how that flies when you're explaining adultery. 00:29:02.960 --> 00:29:04.480 It's the same pattern. 00:29:04.799 --> 00:29:16.640 I don't uh I'm not lusting, like this isn't like a betrayal of God when I I sleep with this woman, and your wife goes, uh-huh. 00:29:18.960 --> 00:29:21.599 Because my heart is not involved. 00:29:23.359 --> 00:29:28.400 This is the same principle with our finances. 00:29:31.599 --> 00:29:34.880 There's a lot of Jesus is shining a lot of light. 00:29:35.200 --> 00:29:40.160 He's thrown around a lot of light when he's speaking in such stark, stark terms. 00:29:40.480 --> 00:29:44.160 He's revealing our hearts to ourselves. 00:29:44.319 --> 00:29:53.920 And uh that's why the next thing that Jesus talks about when he describes in the plainest terms, your money is about your heart, because it's about your treasure. 00:29:54.480 --> 00:29:58.160 And where your treasure is, that's where your heart is. 00:29:58.319 --> 00:30:11.440 There's so much to say about that, about what the shape of a human heart is, that it's a desiring type of thing, and that what matters about the human heart is what it's oriented towards to desire. 00:30:11.680 --> 00:30:26.640 And that only makes sense if we think that the heart was created by something that was utterly desirable and was meant to find its out its highest satisfaction, its greatest created intent in desiring and enjoying that thing. 00:30:26.880 --> 00:30:32.559 Well, our heart was made by God with the intention of enjoying and loving Him. 00:30:32.799 --> 00:30:35.519 So, yes, the heart is a desiring thing. 00:30:35.759 --> 00:30:40.640 So where your treasure is, that's where your heart is. 00:30:42.079 --> 00:30:45.440 It's what it's the type of creature that you are. 00:30:48.960 --> 00:30:51.039 So we've got to talk about our eyes. 00:30:51.279 --> 00:30:53.839 Because with all the light going around, we've got to learn how to see. 00:30:53.920 --> 00:30:58.799 Because if our hearts change, that means that we we've got a new way of looking at the world. 00:30:58.960 --> 00:31:03.920 We've got a new mode of judgment, a new litmus test. 00:31:04.400 --> 00:31:05.759 So this is where Jesus goes. 00:31:05.920 --> 00:31:10.880 He starts, it almost feels strange upon first reading, but then when you read it over and over again, you begin to catch it. 00:31:10.960 --> 00:31:14.880 And it's like, oh, okay, I I think I get a sense of what he's doing here. 00:31:15.119 --> 00:31:21.279 In verse 22 and 23, Jesus says this the eye is the lamp of the body. 00:31:21.759 --> 00:31:26.960 So if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light. 00:31:27.920 --> 00:31:32.799 But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. 00:31:33.119 --> 00:31:39.759 If then the light in you is darkness, how great is that darkness? 00:31:42.319 --> 00:31:44.880 Okay, so this is a bit strange. 00:31:45.200 --> 00:31:47.119 The eye is the lamp of the body. 00:31:47.519 --> 00:31:49.519 Just take it take it this simply. 00:31:49.680 --> 00:31:51.519 It's where the light comes in. 00:31:51.759 --> 00:32:01.039 And when the light comes in, you're able to see and understand your context and the types of things that are around, but eyes are also the organ of judgment in Scripture. 00:32:01.759 --> 00:32:08.960 Because God does not stand back after each day and smell his creation and say that it is good. 00:32:09.279 --> 00:32:12.640 He doesn't even reach out and touch his creation and say that it is good. 00:32:12.880 --> 00:32:16.000 But God saw that it is good. 00:32:17.119 --> 00:32:28.240 Your eye is, of course, the thing by which you can see, but it is also the thing by which you are able to know, is this good or is this bad? 00:32:29.119 --> 00:32:31.839 It is the judgment-making organ. 00:32:33.039 --> 00:32:40.720 And so our eyes, these things which bring in light, Jesus says now I want you to imagine, um, the eye brings in light. 00:32:41.920 --> 00:32:44.799 But if it's dark out, then there's no light. 00:32:45.440 --> 00:32:52.640 But if the eye is bad, even if it's bright out, it's dark inside. 00:32:53.920 --> 00:32:58.720 So he's saying, you could be surrounded by goodness. 00:33:01.519 --> 00:33:08.079 But if you don't have the eye to judge what good is, it will just be darkness to you. 00:33:08.720 --> 00:33:12.400 And you will live in a land of darkness. 00:33:12.720 --> 00:33:13.359 Void. 00:33:13.839 --> 00:33:16.960 You're like a non-created thing. 00:33:17.200 --> 00:33:20.559 In the beginning, the world was formless and void. 00:33:20.720 --> 00:33:22.000 That's what you're like. 00:33:22.559 --> 00:33:26.400 That in fact, that's the environment that you're most suited to. 00:33:30.240 --> 00:33:32.400 And then this strange little stinger at the end. 00:33:32.640 --> 00:33:37.440 If then the light in you is darkness, how great is that darkness? 00:33:37.599 --> 00:33:42.000 Now, this is what he's wanting us to understand. 00:33:46.880 --> 00:33:56.240 If the reality is your eye is bad, and so light does not come in, which is to say, you can't tell what's good and bad. 00:33:56.960 --> 00:34:08.800 You can't tell the difference between something being submitted to the Lord, between something being submitted to Christ as Lord, and to, and between something being submitted to you as Lord. 00:34:09.599 --> 00:34:11.440 You can't tell the difference. 00:34:12.079 --> 00:34:24.960 Saying, well, the experience of that in your heart is actually one, is actually the experience of it to you is one of light. 00:34:26.480 --> 00:34:33.199 Because you think you can tell what is good and what is bad. 00:34:34.000 --> 00:34:40.239 But what you're using to make that distinction, your sword that's making that division is this. 00:34:40.400 --> 00:34:43.280 Written on the sword, it could be something like, I am Lord. 00:34:43.679 --> 00:34:48.239 So now how would I divide the world if I am Lord? 00:34:48.639 --> 00:34:52.159 How would I hold my money if I am Lord? 00:34:52.320 --> 00:34:56.960 I would offer it in tribute and sacrifice to myself. 00:35:00.159 --> 00:35:14.320 I would use it to settle a world around me that could maybe perhaps last forever and reinforce perpetually all the things that I would like to think about myself. 00:35:15.519 --> 00:35:19.840 Jesus is saying, you think you're in the light. 00:35:20.639 --> 00:35:22.880 It's actually dark. 00:35:24.159 --> 00:35:32.639 So if even the light in you, what you would say is light in you is darkness, how dark is that darkness? 00:35:33.920 --> 00:35:50.960 You know, it it's uh you you think of like Plato's cave, you know, the ancient movie theater, and the the folks that are chained and looking at the shadows, and then the uh enlightened people, of course, come into the cave and they explain these are just shadows, they're just shadows. 00:35:51.199 --> 00:35:52.159 That's not the real thing. 00:35:52.320 --> 00:35:56.960 Turn around, you'll see the fire and the puppets, and then we can go outside and you can explore the real thing. 00:35:59.679 --> 00:36:05.599 But they look and they say, No, these shadows are real. 00:36:06.400 --> 00:36:07.920 These shadows are real. 00:36:08.880 --> 00:36:11.519 The light to them is darkness, how great is that darkness? 00:36:11.679 --> 00:36:20.159 And I like to use Plato's allegory of the cave because he's making precisely the opposite point about physical and spiritual that I am making this morning. 00:36:20.639 --> 00:36:24.880 He's absolutely prioritizing the spiritual over the physical and thinks the physical is bad. 00:36:24.960 --> 00:36:27.360 The Christian story is not like his story. 00:36:32.320 --> 00:36:34.719 This is about self-deception. 00:36:35.760 --> 00:36:42.239 And money makes available to us all kinds of self-deception. 00:36:43.280 --> 00:36:46.800 How do you know when you're being deceived? 00:36:51.039 --> 00:36:52.880 That's the perfect answer. 00:36:53.599 --> 00:36:55.039 Of course, you don't. 00:36:55.840 --> 00:37:00.800 If you know you're being deceived, then you're not deceived. 00:37:02.000 --> 00:37:05.039 How to avoid deception with this one simple trick. 00:37:05.360 --> 00:37:06.880 Yeah, know you're deceived. 00:37:07.039 --> 00:37:08.719 Okay, it doesn't work. 00:37:09.280 --> 00:37:14.559 Jesus is saying money has this capacity to be wildly deceptive. 00:37:14.719 --> 00:37:22.239 Even in his parable of the sower, remember when he describes the parable of the sower that goes out on the four different soils? 00:37:23.840 --> 00:37:34.400 And he describes one of the things that creeps in and snatches away the plant that should have grown into a true faith is the deceitfulness of riches. 00:37:35.679 --> 00:37:38.719 Riches are wildly deceitful. 00:37:38.960 --> 00:37:45.840 And you can see this, you can experience it in all kinds of ways, because riches will do things like tease your anxieties. 00:37:46.960 --> 00:37:58.880 You know, I I look around the room and here we are, we live better than any king in history that's more than a hundred years old. 00:37:59.039 --> 00:38:00.800 We live better than them. 00:38:02.800 --> 00:38:05.920 And we think we don't have enough. 00:38:07.599 --> 00:38:10.000 These are deceitful riches. 00:38:11.920 --> 00:38:21.840 We think things like God will not provide, he is not sufficient to give what I actually need. 00:38:23.920 --> 00:38:25.360 It deceives you. 00:38:26.400 --> 00:38:28.079 Like in the garden. 00:38:28.400 --> 00:38:33.760 Did God really say that you can't eat of any tree in the garden? 00:38:34.000 --> 00:38:38.000 This is the way our riches teach us to understand God. 00:38:43.920 --> 00:38:46.719 So our eyes need to be transformed. 00:38:47.599 --> 00:39:02.400 And the transformation of our eyes happens with the change in our treasure, because when Christ becomes our treasure, then that sword that said, I am Lord, that we use to make judgments transforms. 00:39:02.559 --> 00:39:04.159 And it says, Christ is Lord. 00:39:04.239 --> 00:39:09.440 And now we're able to look out into the world wisely and say, is this honoring Christ? 00:39:09.519 --> 00:39:14.880 Then it is good and it will even last eternally and would be worth it for me to participate in. 00:39:15.039 --> 00:39:17.199 Is this just honoring myself? 00:39:17.360 --> 00:39:19.599 Or is this just serving my fear? 00:39:19.840 --> 00:39:29.519 Or is this just trying to acquire for me some type of person or some image of person that if I am just able to realize it, I know that I will feel like it on the inside? 00:39:31.760 --> 00:39:33.519 It's the wrong sword. 00:39:35.519 --> 00:39:37.760 So our eyes must change. 00:39:42.559 --> 00:39:49.920 Is your money there to be brought into conformity with the Lordship of Christ? 00:39:50.559 --> 00:39:57.119 Or do you use your money so that you can be sure you'll never have to depend on him? 00:40:00.880 --> 00:40:06.960 So our hearts need to change to see Christ as above all, rightly ordered. 00:40:07.119 --> 00:40:13.760 And then our eyes need to be changed so that we can look out into the world and make proper judgments on what is good and what is bad. 00:40:13.920 --> 00:40:31.360 And finally, we need to examine how Mammon works as the true God in our lives, and how we need to kill Mammon so that we might work in the Lordship of Christ. 00:40:32.800 --> 00:40:34.800 This is where Jesus ends. 00:40:36.000 --> 00:40:46.800 Verse 24 no one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. 00:40:47.039 --> 00:40:50.159 You cannot serve God and money. 00:40:51.679 --> 00:40:54.079 A George divided against himself. 00:40:59.599 --> 00:41:02.800 Money has the appearance of our servant. 00:41:04.800 --> 00:41:08.960 You can hold it, you're the one who makes decisions about it. 00:41:10.719 --> 00:41:19.760 Oh, but how quickly money becomes the master, and we become the slave. 00:41:22.159 --> 00:41:30.239 And you can see this because it'll work in your heart in such a way where you will start doing whatever you think money demands. 00:41:32.559 --> 00:41:39.840 You'll develop strange relationships with your superiors in your office. 00:41:40.960 --> 00:41:48.480 Where you're this concocted version of yourself that's that's easy to slip into dishonesty. 00:41:49.360 --> 00:41:52.719 Well, but this dishonesty is what money requires. 00:41:55.119 --> 00:42:01.679 Or you'll check your budget before coming home for dinner. 00:42:02.880 --> 00:42:13.519 And you'll see, you know what money requires here is for me to ruin the evening with stress and pick a fight with my spouse. 00:42:14.559 --> 00:42:24.079 And all of a sudden you'll be acting according to, worshipfully, liturgically, according to what this God Mammon requires. 00:42:24.400 --> 00:42:29.920 You'll be easily seduced by things like images. 00:42:32.000 --> 00:42:42.719 And behind these images that are crafted and concocted, you'll imagine whole ways of being and entire styles of life that you could participate in. 00:42:43.280 --> 00:42:45.440 Just worship with your money rightly. 00:42:48.960 --> 00:42:51.679 You cannot serve two masters. 00:42:53.920 --> 00:42:57.920 You cannot serve God and money. 00:42:58.880 --> 00:43:01.119 That word translated money here is mammon. 00:43:02.719 --> 00:43:05.199 You cannot serve God and mammon. 00:43:05.360 --> 00:43:08.719 And you can see it come into conflict, come into conflict. 00:43:11.679 --> 00:43:15.679 Right when the church says you should give 10% of what you make to the church. 00:43:20.079 --> 00:43:21.599 Well, pick one. 00:43:23.119 --> 00:43:24.079 Pick one. 00:43:27.599 --> 00:43:32.800 I don't you want me to offer you a bailout? 00:43:35.360 --> 00:43:38.480 I didn't mean to stay in the finance realm, but here we are. 00:43:38.719 --> 00:43:43.840 There's because it wouldn't it be nice if if I said, but but of course, but of course, but of course. 00:43:43.920 --> 00:43:45.119 We're we're not interested in the number. 00:43:45.199 --> 00:43:47.199 We're not so legal as to be interested in the number. 00:43:47.280 --> 00:43:49.920 We're interested in the heart behind the giving. 00:43:50.079 --> 00:43:54.639